Bulls rally in ninth to secure home opener

DURHAM — The Durham Bulls provided dramatics with a little help in their home opener Monday night at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

At least they didn’t waste a splendid pitching performance.

With a ninth-inning error by the Gwinnett Braves, two Durham runs scored in a 2-1 victory, giving most of the 8,035 spectators something to cheer about after the teams played eight scoreless innings.

Pinch runner Jason Bourgeois scored from second base, following Wil Myers home when Gwinnett shortstop Sean Kazmar couldn’t field Brandon Guyer’s grounder. The ball dribbled into shallow left field, so the Bulls did their damage without the Braves recording an out in the last inning.

“It started on the mound, that was good to see,” Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo said. “Even if we lost, I would have been happy seeing (Jake) Odorizzi pitch like that.”

Odorizzi pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings with eight strikeouts. He gave up four hits in his debut for the Tampa Bay organization after arriving in the offseason trade with the Kansas City Royals.

“For the first time out, it was really good,” Odorizzi said. “It feels great. There were a lot of people here. …

“Anytime you start somewhere new, you want to make a good impression. If you think about it, (you probably) make a bad impression.”

Myers and Leslie Anderson began the bottom of the inning with consecutive singles, putting runners on the corners. Then Chris Gimenez drew a full-count walk before Guyer took his turn.

“We just do it when it counts,” Guyer said. “We worked some good at-bats. You fight and claw and scratch and try to get runs whenever you can. We got them when they counted.”

Gwinnett, which won its first four games of the season, scored in the ninth when the Bulls were trying to turn an inning-ending double play. But after the second out of the inning was recorded, shortstop Hak-Ju Lee lost control of the ball as he turned to attempt to complete the back-end of the play.

With the ball popping out of Lee’s glove, Gwinnett’s Jordan Parraz, who began the play at second base, raced home.

Josh Lueke (1-0) was the winning pitcher. Adam Liberatore, who was called up from Class AA Montgomery earlier in the day, threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen.